Women make gains in French politics / Female candidate seen having chance in presidential race - SFGate Women make gains in French politics / Female candidate seen having chance in presidential race Elizabeth Bryant, Chronicle Foreign Service Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 20, 2007 Photo: POOL Close Image 1 of 4 France's Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal (C) attends a meeting with check-out employees as she visits a supermarket in Paris, April 18, 2007. REUTERS/Francois Mori/Pool (FRANCE) Ran on: 04-20-2007 S�gol�ne Royal less France's Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal (C) attends a meeting with check-out employees as she visits a supermarket in Paris, April 18, 2007. REUTERS/Francois Mori/Pool (FRANCE) Ran on: ...

more Photo: POOL Image 2 of 4 France's UMP party presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy listens to speeches as he is surrounded by former miners during a campaign visit at the Wendel mineshaft in Petite-Roselle, eastern France April 17, 2007. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer (FRANCE) Ran on: 04-20-2007 S�gol�ne Royal less France's UMP party presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy listens to speeches as he is surrounded by former miners during a campaign visit at the Wendel mineshaft in Petite-Roselle, eastern France April 17, ... more Photo: PHILIPPE WOJAZER Image 3 of 4 French Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal, center, helps an unidentified customer during a visit to a supermarket in Paris, Wednesday April 18, 2007. With just four days to go until the election, an Ipsos poll Wednesday suggested that Sarkozy would take 29.5 percent in Sunday's first round, Royal 24.5 percent, and Bayrou 18.5 percent.

(AP Photo/Eric Feferberg; Pool) less French Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal, center, helps an unidentified customer during a visit to a supermarket in Paris, Wednesday April 18, 2007. With just four days to go until the ... more Photo: ERIC FEFERBERG Final push for votes. Associated Press Graphic Final push for votes. Associated Press Graphic Women make gains in French politics / Female candidate seen having chance in presidential race 1 / 4 Back to Gallery 2007-04-20 04:00:00 PDT Paris -- Corinne Lepage still remembers how French lawmakers humiliated her a decade ago, ridiculing draft environmental legislation she introduced. "It would never have happened if I were a man," Lepage said of the recurrent slights she says she endured when she was environment minister -- and one of a handful of female Cabinet ministers then appointed for arguably decorative purposes. It's better now for female politicians, thanks to French and European directives to level the gender playing field.

And while feminists contend political parity remains a distant dream in France, one of the half-dozen female candidates running in Sunday's first-round presidential election has a shot at advancing to the next round. The two finalists will face off on May 6. "Legislation on gender parity has changed many things and sparked a huge debate on the place of women in public life," said political scientist Janine Mossuz-Lavau , explaining the change in perceptions. "Increasing numbers of French women are working, and that also favors political engagement. Then there's the international context -- the election of women as presidents in places like Chile and Liberia where this has never happened before." Nobody is capitalizing more from the shift than Ségolène Royal. The 53-year-old Socialist lawmaker topped French popularity polls for months, but a series of political gaffes caused her to drop in a tight race with former conservative Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy complicated by the presence of minor-party centrist François Bayrou and perennial anti-immigrant candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen .

Sunday's vote will partly be one of personalities -- the top candidates have often strayed from party orthodoxies, plucking ideas from the political left and right to revive a lackluster economy and better integrate millions of black and Arab citizens. Turnout is expected to be high, with a larger-than-usual number of voters making up their minds at the last minute. An Ipsos-Dell poll Wednesday suggested that Sarkozy would take 29.5 percent in Sunday's first round, Royal 24.5 percent, and Bayrou 18.5 percent, the Associated Press reported. Le Pen was credited with 13.5 percent -- injecting a fresh dose of suspense into the race. "The main strength of Ségolène Royal is that she is a woman," said political analyst Dominique Moïsi , summing up the perceived sentiments of the French electorate. "A woman sounds modern. A woman sounds like the thing to do. We've tried everything and failed so far. So why not try a woman?" "I could easily vote for a woman, but not for Royal," said 70-year-old retiree Alain Debergh , braving an icy wind on the Champs-Élysées one recent morning.

"I can't stand her smile." Like Royal, most of the other female hopefuls in the race are veterans of France's male-dominated politics. Former environment minister Dominique Voynet is running for president on the Green Party ticket. The Communist Party is fielding its boss, Marie-George Buffet . Lepage, the ex-environment minister, considered running before throwing her support to Bayrou. Then there is 67-year-old Troskyist Arlette Laguiller , the first French woman to run for president, in 1974. At the time, an army general suggested Laguiller would do better marrying a parachutist than running for office. But she believes her candidacy sparked a groundbreaking debate on the place of women in politics. "Some people were scornful, and not all women thought it was great, but I still got a lot of encouraging letters," recalled Laguiller, who has run in every subsequent election, scooping a few percentage points each time. Still, France remains a laggard on gender equality in Europe. Women hold just 12 percent of seats in the National Assembly , or lower chamber of parliament, and 17 percent in the Senate.

Only five of the 27 European Union countries score lower, according to a survey by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union . Globally, France ranks an unimpressive 86th out of 139 nations, behind Greece, Gambia and the United States -- where women occupy just 16 percent of seats in the Senate and House of Representatives . "We're only slowly entering the democratic revolution when it comes to gender parity -- and often only because of European directives," said Emmanuelle Latour , general secretary of France's Parity Observatory, a government-created body. "We've always fallen back on the excuse that we were a Catholic country, on our Salic tradition that prevented women from accessing the throne." Taking the example of Spain, where Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has championed women's rights through new legislation and appointing an equal number of men and women to his Cabinet, Latour added: "All the excuses in France burst with Spain. Spain had the same traditions. But they were able to change overnight because of political will." A handful of French governments have offered lip service to parity, with varying degrees of commitment.

Former conservative Prime Minister Alain Juppé appointed a dozen women to his Cabinet in 1995, including Lepage, the former environment minister. But they quickly earned the disparaging nickname of "jupettes" -- a play on the French word for skirt. Eight were fired just six months later. "It was very cosmetic -- none of us had a post of great responsibility," said Lepage, who remained in office. "I was the only one with a real ministry, and it was the smallest." But under Juppé's Socialist successor, Lionel Jospin , women headed several key ministries, including justice and labor. Another woman, Michèle Alliot-Marie , is defense minister under the current conservative government. In 2000, the government also passed a parity law, stipulating that parties field an equal number of male and female candidates for any given election, or face fines. France's smaller parties have generally observed the legislation -- partly to receive public campaign financing -- including the traditionalist, far-right National Front party. Surprisingly, the country's two main parties -- the Socialists and the ruling, conservative Union for a Popular Movement -- have consistently violated the law, preferring to pay the penalties and back veteran male politicians.

"But they have also paid a cost in terms of public opinion," Latour said. "People have viewed their choice ... as very backward and chauvinistic." In December, the French parliament stiffened penalties for violating the parity law, and the Socialist party, for one, vows to heed gender quotas in the June legislative elections. Royal herself made clear last weekend how much she depends on the women's vote to win. Campaigning Sunday in northern France, she called on female voters to write "a new page in the history of France" by making her the country's first female president. "The entire world is watching you." Latest from the SFGATE homepage: Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page. French Presidential Election: Sarkozy's Rendezvous With Destiny - SPIEGEL ONLINE French Presidential Election: Sarkozy's Rendezvous With Destiny French Presidential Election Sarkozy's Rendezvous With Destiny It was like the celebration of a high mass.

Some 78,000 supporters attended the congress at which Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the ruling UMP, was anointed as the party's presidential candidate in the election this spring. Feedback AP French Interior Minister and head of the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Movement party Nicolas Sarkozy getting ready to knock history out. "Together, everything becomes possible." That was the soft slogan under which Nicolas Sarkozy, 51, appealed for unity among his conservative supporters on Sunday. His speech was preceded by a rocket launch-like countdown and electronic organ music accompanied him as he strode onto the stage -- a frenetic apotheosis for the man on whom the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party is pinning its hopes of winning the presidency. The organizers of the party congress left absolutely nothing to chance. They hired a specialist who directs a popular musical talent show on French television. The stage was perfectly white, the backdrop could be lit up in the blue, white and red of the French national flag. There were video panels, mobile camera units and PA stacks. And there was a list of celebrity speakers whose fiery words whipped up the audience for Sarkozy's entrance like at a rock concert.

France's governing UMP party organized this mega-show to celebrate its presidential candidate in the exhibition hall near Porte de Versaille in Paris  a place usually reserved for the car industry to display its newest products, or for farmers to present their most beautiful cows, their fattest hens and their best wine. It was a "family celebration," a coronation mass, celebrated in the very place where Jacques Chirac, the current French president, officially founded the UMP's predecessor party 30 years ago. Sarkozy takes the lead The issue wasn't whether Sarkozy would be nominated as the conservative candidate but how best to send him into the presidential race. He was the only presidential candidate left after all his conservative rivals had stepped aside in view of the party leader's overriding popularity. And so the result of the vote matched what everyone expected: 98.1 percent of the UMP's supporters voted for Sarkozy  a result reminiscent of a Soviet plebiscite. Even Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin changed course at the last minute in order to take a bow before Sarkozy by paying him a brief, 35-minute visit  albeit one that barely satisfied the minimum standards of party-political diplomacy.

Only President Jacques Chirac acted offended. He didn't even deign tp give a welcoming address to his potential successor. One after another, many of the most prominent politicians from Chirac's wing of the party had switched to Sarkozy's camp during the past weeks and days  and this surely contributed to Chirac's bitterness. It was precisely these UMP turncoats who sat at the foot of the stage on Sunday, competing with each other to give the most enthusiastic and devoted address to "dear Nicolas." Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie lashed out against socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal. Former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin mocked the oppositional party's platform. Alain Juppé, also a former Prime Minister and now the mayor of Bordeaux, reminded listeners of the values and virtues of the UMP, the conservative party that was born out of the alliance of Gaullists and neoliberals. Sarkozy is moved And so Sarkozy was able to present himself as the candidate of unity, beyond all divisiveness, animosity and trench warfare.

He told his fellow Frenchmen he was "deeply moved" and then announced the direction he wants to move the party in: "We have a single goal  victory," he proclaimed. "All of us together, in solidarity, as one family, can achieve anything: Together everything becomes possible." Ensemble tout devient possible  that was the UMP candidate's hope-inspiring slogan. Sarkozy is often accused of dividing people rather than uniting them, and 51 percent of the French find him more troubling than reassuring  but on Sunday he presented himself as a genuine statesman, firmly rooted in the history of his nation. That's why he began by paying homage to the Gaullist grandees, to his mentors and political tutors  cleverly making himself the successor of his illustrious role-models, and the keeper of their legacy. He repeated the words "I have changed" emphatically, signaling that he was going into the elections not as the representative of one party, but as the "candidate of all French people." Sarkozy used the human touch.

Widely perceived as brash, brutish and consumed by ambition, he confessed his "defeats," his "moments of weakness" and his "political doubts." The message was clear: I am a new, more mature and improved candidate. The newly open-hearted Sarkozy even repeatedly found words of praise for Chirac  who is still threatening to create problems for Sarkozy's electoral campaign by running for the presidency himself, for the third time in his political career. Then Sarkozy started giving the conservatives what they want to hear, invoking the "faces of France"  a panorama of resistance fighters, writers and politicans  and standing up for the separation of church and state in combination with "full respect for all religions." He appealed to the rule of law and to morality  and he repeatedly referred back to the past, citing Victor Hugo, Emile Zola and George Clemenceau. The result: Sarkozy appeared as a genuine son of the "grande nation." Sarkozy praises the French republic He praised "tolerance" and pledged allegiance to the idea of France as an "open nation" and "land of human rights". But he also presented himself as a liberal defender of French culture and civilization.

He criticized those who oppress women, who practise polygamy and subject their daughters to female circumcision. "Such people have no place on the territory of France," the presidential candidate said. Family, education, property, hard work, authority were his keywords. Sarkozy's ideal France is a country "where students get up when the teacher enters the room" -- a "real republic" where people are rewarded in according to merit and where "everyone has rights, but duties too." A republic of equality, but not of artificial equalising  that's what the son of a Hungarian immigrant is promising young people too. He presented them with the prospect of a future characterized by education and employment opportunities  but only after six months of compulsory labor duty for all. "Stop asking what your country can do for you," he said, quoting John F. Kennedy, "and start thinking about what you can do for your country." In making such statements, the presidential candidate knows himself to be in agreement with his political family, those people who perceive themselves as "French to the roots," who cherish conservative values and feel close ties to their homeland  and who are troubled by the current economic crisis and by globalization.

Sarkozy has just the right words for a middle class that is yearning back for the stability of the 1950s. He sings the praises of work, of entrepreneurship, but also of lower-level employees, civil servants and the working class. "I want to be the president of the people," Sarkozy says. He didn't leave out a single controversial topic, and he forgot none of his possible voters. That's why he closed by addressing the environment and the "protection of the planet." His words about looking back and moving forward went down well with his audience in the exhibition hall  as did his description of France as the geographical center of Europe, a bridge to the Mediterranean and to Africa. The very man who got cozy with President George W. Bush during his last visit to the US suddenly called for rebuking America "when they're wrong or when they violate the rights of nations." "I'll need  and France will need  everybody here," Sarkozy told his audience, his voice shaky with emotion. He called on the right and the left, on those in Paris and those overseas, insisting there can be no more political divisions "when France is the issue." Was anything missing?

No, there was even a choirboy who came walking down the stage singing the national anthem in a high soprano, while high-pitched male voices intoned the "Marseillaise" in the background. The scene, designed to make people cry with emotion, seemed as if it had been lifted from the script of the popular film "Les Choristes." It was a well-staged show, and it sent patriotic chills down the spines of thousands of Sarkozy supporters. The next rendezvous will be the first round of elections on April 22. France's presidential race has begun. Article... Sarkozy to sue the website that claimed Gaddafi financed campaign Sarkozy to sue the website that claimed Gaddafi financed campaign World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: April 30, 2012 17:21 IST EMAIL PRINT COMMENTS Paris: Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday to sue a website that claimed that Moamer Gaddafi had financed his 2007 Presidential election, seeking to spin the charge in the crucial final week before France goes to the polls.

Right-wing incumbent Mr Sarkozy is slowly clawing back points from Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande, whose own Presidential bid has been hit by the intrusion of disgraced International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn into the campaign. Both candidates have been appealing to the 18 per cent of voters who chose anti-immigrant candidate Marine Le Pen in the April 22 first round, with Mr Sarkozy riding on the back of the rhetoric inspired by her National Front party. Mr Sarkozy, on Monday, dismissed as a "crude forgery", a document published by left-wing investigative website Mediapart alleging that the former Libyan dictator agreed to give 50 million euros ($66 million) to Mr Sarkozy's campaign in 2007. "We will file a suit against Mediapart... this document is a crude forgery, the two people supposed to have sent and received this document have dismissed it," Mr Sarkozy told France 2 television. Mr Sarkozy and his supporters believe that he is relentlessly targeted by "biased" left-wing media, while the incumbent has repeatedly sought to portray himself as a victim now repenting his perceived "bling bling" style.

"There's a section of the press, of the media, and notably the site in question whose name I refuse to mention, that is prepared to fake documents, shame on those who have exploited them," he said. Claims that Gaddafi financed Mr Sarkozy's 2007 campaign are not new, but Mediapart's document bearing the signature of Libya's former foreign intelligence Chief Moussa Koussa is something that never came up before. The letter was addressed to Bashir Saleh, Gaddafi's former Chief of staff and head of Libya's 40-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, who is currently a resident of France. But Saleh's lawyer said that he had "grave reservations" about the document while Mr Koussa, who now lives in Qatar, said: "All these allegations are false." Mr Hollande said that it was up to judges to decide on the veracity of the Libyan allegations.

"If it's a forged document then the site will be found guilty, if it's not then he (Sarkozy) will have some explaining to do," Mr Hollande said, denying any link to Mediapart which Mr Sarkozy has branded "an agency in the service of the left." Mr Hollande's team meanwhile sought to play down the re-emergence of one-time Presidential hopeful Mr Strauss-Kahn into the race, after the man known in France as DSK attended a Socialist lawmaker's birthday party in Paris. MP Julien Dray on Saturday invited senior members of his party to his birthday drinks party at a popular disco bar on the notorious Rue St Denis, a street which has historically been associated with prostitution. But Dray did not warn his guests that he had invited Strauss-Kahn, who became a toxic figure last year when he was accused of sexual assault in New York and is now under investigation in France over alleged ties to a vice ring. "He no longer has a role in political life and thus should not be part of a campaign nor in any images that could potentially lead people to believe he's coming back," Mr Hollande said on Sunday.

Mr Hollande's former partner Segolene Royal, who was beaten by Mr Sarkozy in the 2007 Presidential race, said that the former IMF Chief's presence at the party was "inconsequential". "I at first thought it was a joke. Then I thought that it was in very bad taste," she told BFM-TV, adding that "I left immediately." "I don't want to meet DSK, given what happened which damaged the dignity of women," Ms Royal said. An Ipsos poll published on Monday said that Mr Hollande would win Sunday's run-off 53 per cent to 47 per cent, after the Socialist dropped a percentage point to Mr Sarkozy compared to the last poll on April 22. Nevertheless, 22 per cent of those questioned said that they would go and vote but declined to say for who. The Ipsos poll said that 54 per cent of far-right candidate Ms Le Pen's voters would go for Mr Sarkozy in the run-off, while 14 per cent of them would vote for Mr Hollande.

Both candidates have a number of major rallies planned for the final week of campaigning, and will face each other on Wednesday in a televised debate that could prove to be Mr Sarkozy's last chance for a breakthrough. Sarkozy wins French presidential race Sarkozy wins French presidential race (Reuters) Updated: 2007-05-07 08:45 PARIS - Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy triumphed in France's presidential election on Sunday, sweeping aside his Socialist rival Segolene Royal and winning a powerful mandate for reform. Nicolas Sarkozy, France's newly-elected president, waves to supporters as he leaves the Fouquet's restaurant on the Champs-Elysees in Paris May 6, 2007. Sarkozy defeated Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal on Sunday. [Reuters] Sarkozy won 53.1 percent of the ballot against 46.9 percent for Royal, with voters signing up to his vision of a hardworking France and turning a deaf ear to leftist accusations he would prove a divisive, dangerous and abrasive leader.

Sporadic violence flared in a number of French cities after his emphatic victory was flashed on television screens, but a conciliatory Sarkozy immediately reached out to his beaten foes, promising to be president of the entire nation. Hu congratulates Sarkozy Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday extended his congratulations to Nicolas Sarkozy on his victory in the French presidential election on Sunday. In a congratulatory message, President Hu said that China and France have witnessed in-depth development in their comprehensive strategic partnership in recent years. And the two sides have made substantial progress in cooperation in areas of politics, economy and trade, science and technology, education and judiciary, and have conducted close coordination on major issues of respective concerns, Hu added. The Chinese president said that China-France relations have become a fine example of mutual respect and friendly coexistence between countries with different historical backgrounds, cultural traditions as well as countries at different development stages. Advancing the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples, but is conducive to world peace, stability and development, he said.

The Chinese president said that under new historical conditions he will work with Sarkozy in accordance with the spirit and principles of key documents such as the China-France Joint Statement, to promote the development of bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, and through joint efforts in order to turn a new page for China-France friendly relations and all-round cooperation. "Those who have been broken, those who have been worn down by life, must know they have not been abandoned, that they will be helped, they will be rescued," he told cheering supporters. Turnout was almost 84 percent, the highest since 1988, giving his victory a strong legitimacy and extending the right's 12-year grip on power after two successive terms by president Jacques Chirac, who is retiring. However, Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, has made clear he wants to be a more pro-active and radical leader than Chirac, promising to loosen rigid labour laws, trim fat from the public service, cut taxes and wage war on unemployment. "The French people ... have chosen to break with the ideas and habits of the past.

I will thus rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit," said Sarkozy, a former interior minister with a hardline reputation. The French president is elected for five years, is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, nominates the prime minister and is responsible for foreign and defence policies. FRESH ELECTIONS He will take power on May 16, becoming the first French head of state to be born after World War Two. He will then name a government and start campaigning for June's parliamentary election. Most analysts expect his UMP party to retain its majority, giving Sarkozy a good chance of pushing through his economic and social reform programme. "It is a clear mandate for reforms. He will have to fine-tune things very skilfully, of course," said Nicolas Sobczak, an economist at Goldman Sachs. Sarkozy is promising a deluge of reforms in his first 100 days, including plans to undermine the 35-hour work week by cutting taxes on overtime, curbing union powers and tightening sentencing for repeat offenders.

Union leaders have denounced his proposals and France could face crippling strikes in the autumn of the sort that tripped Chirac when he took office in 1995 and tried to impose change. The defeated Socialists face a period of potentially painful infighting after they suffered their third presidential defeat in a row. Moderates wasted no time in demanding deep reform to make the party more attractive. Royal started the year as favourite but never recovered from a string of campaign gaffes and a manifesto full of lofty ambition but short of precise detail. She told supporters on Sunday that she would continue her recent push to link her party with the centrists. "You can count on me to deepen the renovation of the left and the pursuit of new convergences beyond its current boundaries," she told downhearted party activists. CONGRATULATIONS European Union leaders congratulated Sarkozy, who promised to put France back into the driving seat of Europe after the country voted down the EU constitution in a 2005 referendum. "Tonight France is back in Europe," he said. U.S. President George W. Bush also telephoned to offer his congratulations and said he expected good relations with Sarkozy, who has made a priority of repairing the damage to French-U.S.

relations caused by tension over the Iraq war. Sarkozy said France would be Washington's friend, but urged the United States to do more to combat global warming. The Socialists portrayed Sarkozy as a danger for France, saying he was authoritarian and likely to exacerbate tensions in the poor, multi-racial suburbs that ring many French cities and where the epicentre of three weeks of rioting in 2005. Thousands of extra police were drafted in to patrol sensitive suburbs on Sunday and there were skirmishes between leftist sympathisers and police in Paris, Toulouse and Lyon. Police said a number of cars were also set alight in suburbs around Paris, but there were no exact figures. Top World News Politeness as a strategy of attack in a gendered political debate—The Royal–Sarkozy debate | DeepDyve Try 2 weeks free now Politeness as a strategy of attack in a gendered political debate—The Royal–Sarkozy debate Fracchiolla, Béatrice This article examines the televised debate between Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, which took place on 2 May 2007, a few days before the second round of the French presidential election.

The objective is to assess whether or not the presence of a woman candidate in the second round, for the first time in French history, had an impact on the debate, and to examine how the two French presidential candidates addressed each other during the two-hour debate. Transcriptions analyzed using the Lexico3 software developed by the SYLED-CLA2t at University of Paris 3 serve as the basis of the content and statistical analysis. Results indicate differential strategies: Nicolas Sarkozy makes excessive displays of deferential politeness and uses a wide range of registers; Ségolène Royal is more combative and formal. While Ségolène Royal makes use of a series of coordinated sentences, concrete explanations and examples, Nicolas Sarkozy tends to refer to abstraction. I hypothesize that this is informed by gender assumptions about politeness and the ethos of discourse of power – meaning manipulation and control through discourse in the political domain.

Journal of Pragmatics Elsevier Politeness as a strategy of attack in a gendered political debate—The Royal–Sarkozy debate atrice Fracchiolla * University of Paris 8 & SYLED, Paris 3 & MSH-Paris Nord, 4 rue La Croix Faron, 93210 La plaine Saint-Denis, France 1. Introduction This article examines the televised debate between the two candidates qualiﬁed for the second round of the 2007 French presidential election, Se gole ` ne Royal (SR) and Nicolas Sarkozy (NS). The Royal–Sarkozy debate took place on 2 May 2007 four days before the second round, and was the last media appearance of the candidates allowed by French law. This was the ﬁrst French presidential election, and hence the ﬁrst debate, in which one of the two remaining candidates was a woman. As such, this is an unprecedented opportunity for evaluating whether a female candidate is perceived as equal to a male candidate.

Gender stereotypes have had a signiﬁcant impact on the progress and reception of women in politics (Gidengil and Everitt, 2003) and have been shown to exert a powerful inﬂuence on voting patterns and political success (Fox and Smith, 1998; Kahn, 1996; Koch, 2000; Dolan, 2004). Research has also provided evidence that the media tend to use and reinforce gender stereotypes (Kahn, 1992, 1996; Robinson and Saint-Jean, 1995; Ross, 1995; Bystrom et al., 2001). In contrast to men who are often portrayed as forceful, female politicians are often represented as passive (Lithgow, 2000) and less competent (Serini et al., 1998; Gidengil and Everitt, 1999; Scharrer, 2002). It can be suggested that equality is not achieved in this campaign (as shown by other contributors in this issue).

The numerous attacks of which SR was the object did seem to be motivated, in part, by gender. This paper endeavors to assess whether the female candidate was treated by her opponent in a way that could indicate a gender-bias. Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2480–2488 ARTICLE INFO This article examines the televised debate between Se ´ ` ne Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, which took place on 2 May 2007, a few days before the second round of the French presidential election. The objective is to assess whether or not the presence of a woman candidate in the second round, for the ﬁrst time in French history, had an impact on the debate, and to examine how the two French presidential candidates addressed each other during the two-hour debate. Transcriptions analyzed using the Lexico3 software developed by the SYLED-CLA2t at University of Paris 3 serve as the basis of the content and statistical analysis.

Resultsindicate differentialstrategies: Nicolas Sarkozy makes excessive displays of deferential politeness and uses a wide range of registers; Se ´ Sarkozy, Royal in final TV showdown - CNN.com Sarkozy, Royal in final TV showdown Story Highlights • French presidential candidates face off in last debate before Sunday vote • Debate seen as crucial platform in a personality-driven election • Sarkozy's temper thought an issue; he doesn't want to seem too aggressive • Royal was expected to focus the debate on personality and turn on her charm Adjust font size: (CNN) -- Months of tense campaigning came to a head Wednesday when the top two contenders in the French presidential election went head to head in a final televised debate. Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, the underdog in opinion polls, immediately attacked Nicolas Sarkozy for the record of the outgoing rightist government, in which he served as both interior minister and finance minister. "You are in part responsible for the situation in which France finds itself today," Royal said in her opening remarks, according to Reuters, accusing the government of failing to tackle unemployment and overseeing an increase in street crime.

Sarkozy started by hitting a main theme of his campaign, in which he has tried to present himself almost as an opposition leader, promising to break with the past if he takes over. "We cannot continue to do politics as before," he said in his opening remarks in the debate, Reuters reported. Sarkozy has led the pack throughout the presidential race, while Royal has gained steady momentum, often targeting her opponent with harsh criticism. The televised debate gives both candidates an opportunity for a final face-off and gives the French voting public -- many still undecided -- a chance to compare their options side by side before going to polls again on Sunday to pick their new leader. The debate was expected to pull in a wide audience, nearly half the country's 44.5 million voters, ahead of the clinching second round of voting, a Reuters report said. Style and personality This year's presidential campaign has been as much about a candidate's likability and personality as it has about political issues. CNN's European political editor, Robin Oakley, said the race could come down to whose personality is more appealing.

Many voters find Sarkozy "scary and authoritarian," Oakley said, adding that the conservative front-runner will have to keep a handle on his temper during the debate so that he does not come across as too aggressive. Sarkozy's harsh personality is one of his drawbacks, Oakley said, adding that it suits Royal to focus the debate around personality as much as possible, because her plans for reforming France are mild at best. "It's a deliberate socialist tactic," Oakley said. Royal has tried to sell herself as a strong female candidate with the right attitude to get France back on track without "brutalizing" the country and ruffling too many feathers. She's also been put down for a series of foreign policy blunders that made her look too inexperienced to lead the nation. Tough guy Sarkozy has vowed to bring swift and effective change and impose more stringent immigration policies. But he has struggled to shake the specter of criticism he received as interior minister for his handling of the 2005 youth riots in Paris. Royal was expected to bring her charm to the podium to counter her opponent's leadership experience.

But Oakley said Sarkozy has also turned up the charm in recent days, when he said Royal should not be reduced to her femininity, "great though it is." Sarkozy has said he has a great deal of respect for his opponent. Oakley said how much respect he shows Royal in tonight's debate is something to keep an eye on. Former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, author of "You Don't Have a Monopoly of the Heart," said the debate would be decisive. In the 1974 presidential election, d'Estaing debated rival Francois Mitterrand. "I think I was elected because of this debate," he said on RTL radio Wednesday, according to Reuters. Analysts have questioned whether the debate will have much impact on undecided voters. But with an estimated 20 million viewers, the kind of audience usually seen only in World Cup soccer finals, the pressure is on for the candidates. Audiences will be anticipating a keenly fought contest and watching for the kind of one-liner or gaffe that can be remembered for years afterwards, Reuters said.

"Every moment is decisive, but I'm not one of those people who dramatize the significance of the debate to that point," Sarkozy said on France Inter radio, downplaying the anticipated encounter. Crucial debate The debate is being moderated by two of France's most prominent journalists. Every detail was mapped out after intensive consultation with the campaign teams. The French citizenry has followed this year's election with exceptional interest. With a record number of voters going to polls in the first round on April 22, this has been one of the most popular elections in decades. Sarkozy was expected to be a tough competitor. He is considered to be one of the most forceful speakers in French politics and polls show more people think he has the stature of a president. But the one-time protege to outgoing president Jacques Chirac can be unpredictable. Royal hopes to convince the voting public she has what it takes to lead the nation. "Television debate: Royal stakes everything against Sarkozy," business daily Les Echos headlined its front page. Sarkozy is seen as more economically liberal and supporters appreciate his tough stance on crime and illegal immigration as well as his defense of a "silent majority" of hardworking French.

Left-leaning critics see him as a dangerous authoritarian to be hated and feared. Royal is trying to become the nation's first female president. By combining left-wing economic policies and traditional social values, sprinkled with a maternal touch, Royal is seen as more sympathetic to everyday concerns. But missteps on the international arena have prompted her to be labeled a lightweight. Polls The latest opinion poll on Wednesday confirmed Sarkozy's lead over Royal, giving him 52 percent support against 48 percent for Royal, according to Reuters. Jerome Sainte-Marie of pollsters BVA, who carried out the survey, said neither had yet established a clear lead as the candidate best representing change or the candidate best able to rally France. The gap between them was slightly smaller than in a previous survey, taken Monday, which showed Sarkozy at 53 percent and Royal at 47 percent. That poll followed a debate between Royal and Francois Bayrou, the centrist who finished third in the first round and whose 7 million voters could prove key to deciding the race. Reuters contributed to this report. Tools:

Question: Which female candidate was beaten by Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 French Presidential election?
Answer: (Segolene) Royale